Tomorrow, April 12, NASA will announce the final destination for each of its retired space shuttles. As the NASA closes down its space shuttle program, this last mission comes with mixed feelings—joy on the one hand, as the organization looks ahead to new ways to explore space, and sadness on the other, as the shutdown of the shuttle program marks the end of an era of unprecedented space discovery.

NASA has already declared that the space shuttle Discovery will likely have a home at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. But the final resting places for the two remaining shuttles—Atlantis and Endeavour—are yet a mystery. Atlantis and Endeavour are each scheduled for one last mission in 2011 before calling it quits.

Since there’s some time to fill before NASA’s announcement, Britannica invites you on a photographic journey as we take a closer look at each of these amazing shuttles.

One of NASA's two modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ferries space shuttle Atlantis back to the Kennedy Space Center after departing NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA/Jim Ross